Obama to deliver jobs message in Boehner's backyard

The president will be heading back to Ohio next week and this time he’ll appear in Speaker John Boehner’s backyard. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced this afternoon that President Obama will take his jobs message to the foot of an aging bridge that connects Ohio to Kentucky.

He'll deliver the message “at the Brent Spence Bridge, urging Congress to pass the American Jobs Act now,” Carney said, “so that we can make much needed investments in infrastructure projects across the country and put more Americans back to work.”

While this section of Ohio isn’t actually in Boehner’s 8th Congressional District, it’s close enough to cause a flurry of questions during Carney’s briefing, including if the White House alerted the Speaker’s office of the speech plans. Carney didn’t know the answer to that and as for the optics of it all he said was, “If you're asking me if, by going to this bridge, are we hoping to draw some attention to this urgent need? The answer is unequivocally yes.”

The president spoke of the bridge during his Joint Session of Congress speech last week.

“There are private construction companies all across America just waiting to get to work,” Obama said then. “There's a bridge that needs repair between Ohio and Kentucky that's on one of the busiest trucking routes in North America.”

There’s already a website highlighting the Brent Spence Bridge Replacement/Rehabilitation project which states

“Currently, the Brent Spence Bridge and the I-71/I-75 corridor support a level of use that far exceeds its original design. Specific problems include growing traffic congestion, safety concerns, and design deficiencies…The National Bridge Inventory lists the Brent Spence Bridge as functionally obsolete due to the capacity, sight distance, and safety concerns associated with its current configuration. “

It’s anticipated work on the bridge will begin in 2015 though the nature and cost of that project is still in the process of a review.